V. I. Lenin

Draft Resolution of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee to Terminate Publication of the JournalKommunist{2}

Written:Written after March 28 (April 10), 1910Published:First published in 1962 in Vol. 27 of the Fifth Russian edition of theCollected Works.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 41,

      pages367-368.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of theGNU Free Documentation License.

Notfor the press:

Takinginto consideration

(1)thatKommunistwas founded—temporarily and as an
experiment—by a federated editorial board, when there had been no sign ofanydifference on any substantial question between the
C.O. Editorial Board and the rest of the Editorial Board as a whole;

(2)that after No. 1–2 of “Kommunist”threemembers of the Editorial Board put forward such differences in their sighed
theses on the question of self-determination;

(3)that an exchange of opinion on this question revealed deep
divergence over the assessment of the role of democratic demands and the
minimum programme in general;—

—theC.C. resolves: to recognise the continuation of the journalKommunistas impossible and to declare thatt h i s  publication  is  hereby  terminated.—

Furthermore.With a view toextendingthe discussion on the
controversial questions and to having them clarified before a broader
circle of leading comrades, the C.C. resolves:

torequest the three comrades who have signed the theses to draw up amotivated statementof their differences with the C.O. Editorial
Board.

Thisstatement together with a reply by the C.O. Editorial Board shall
be communicated to a broader circle of leading Party workers for afinaldecision on whether it is desirable and necessary to open a
debate in the
press.{3}

Ivery much regret thatyouare dragging out this “terribly
boring” business.I repeat—I, too, am terribly bored with
having to repeat—that Imust declineto take part inKommunist.

Yourplan lacks principle and tends toconfoundthe
confusion.If there are noprofound differences of principle, the
submission to the C.C. is either slander or intrigue, and you will be
exposed by every worker in Russia.

Ifthere are,a s  m u c hmust be said: after No. 1–2 people have begun
to confuse things outrageously;w edecline  responsibility;  we believe it to be our dutynotto encourage but to expose.As  a  concessionwe invite (see leaflet) them to have
another discussion||before an “enlarged circle” (so as not to shame them in the press;not to killthem outright by polemics).{That is the only reason.}

ForS b o r n i k  S o t s i a l-  D e m o k r a t a{4}we
have, apart from a number of our
			      articles,[1]Varin + Alexander + reports + indictment (I have not yet received it) +
Safarov + Latvian + Kollontai (probably).

TheJapanese{5}should be invited only to be shamed; Bukharin—onlyorder materialon the economic question.

Radekshouldn o tbe invited (his article isl e g
a land isnot at all importantin this shape). We shall
have tofightagainsthistheses.

Hereis my opinion.Kommunistis acorpseand I am
not taking part in reviving it.

Alexander(and the Russian workers in the Bureau) should confront them
with this question ofp r i n c i p l e:
wedo not takeon the Editorial Board people who confuse things
outrageously and refuse to learn, who do not even wish to make an effort to
set forth their opinion. They want top l a y  u s  o f fagainst the P.S.D., that much is clear,
while they themselves are safe on the sidelines.

Kommunistmet the task ofthatperiod: to rally
everyoneagainstsocial-chauvinism and Kautskyism.

Thetask now isdifferent: we are faced with as t r u g g l eagainst “imperialistE c o n o m i s m”.

Salut,Lenin

P.S.Why did you notreply
  whether  or  not  Sukhanov  was  sent  to  Geneva?  I
 send you material for Grimm.

Noluckwith translation of the theses.

[1]There will be enough “writers” fort w ocollections!  —Lenin

{2}Kommunistwas organised by Lenin and was published by the
Editorial Board ofSotsial-Demokrattogether with G. L. Pyatakov
and Yevgenia Bosh, who financed the publication. N. I. Bukharin was also on
the Editorial Board. One (double) issue was published. It carried, apart
from the article “The Voice of an Honest French Socialist”, two other
articles by Lenin: “The Collapse of the Second International” and
“Imperialism and Socialism in Italy”.

Theplan for the publication of the journal was worked out by Lenin in
the spring of 1915. He directed the organisational meeting of the Editorial
Board. Lenin hoped to make it an international organ of Left-wing
Social-Democrats. However, there soon appeared serious differences between
the Editorial Board and Bukharin, Pyatakov and Bosh, which were aggravated
after the issue of No. 1–2. The Bukharin-Pyatakov-Bosh group took an
incorrect attitude on many basic questions of the Programme and tactics of
the Party—the right of nations to self-determination, the role of
democratic demands and the minimum programme in general, etc.—and tried
to use the journal for their factional aims. On the Editorial Board, Lenin
conducted a struggle against the Bukharin Pyatakov-Bosh group, exposing
their anti-Bolshevik views and factional acts, and sharply criticising the
conciliatory attitude of G. Y. Zinoviev and A. G. Shlyapnikov towards the
group.

Inview of the anti-Party behaviour of this group, the Editorial Board
ofSotsial-Demokrat, on Lenin’s proposal, declared that it
considered the further publication of the journal impossible. The
C.C. Bureau in Russia, having heard a report on the differences on theKommunistEditorial Board, declared, its full solidarity with the
Editorial Board of the Central Organ,Sotsial-Demokrat, and
expressed the wish that “all C.C. publications should be edited in a
strictly consistent tenor, in full conformity with the line of the C.C.,
which it had adopted at the beginning of the war”.

p. 367

{3}The following text is an addition to the draft resolution, addressed to
G. Y. Zinoviev.

p. 367

{4}Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata(Sotsial-DemokratCollection) was founded by Lenin and published by the Editorial Board of
the newspaperSotsial-Demokrat. There were two issues: No. 1 in
October and No. 2 in December 1916. Material was prepared for No. 3 which
was to include Lenin’s article “A Caricature of Marxism and Imperialist
Economism”, but the publication was discontinued for lack of funds.

p. 368

{5}The name given to G. Pyatakov and Yevgenia Bosh because they had
emigrated from Russia to Switzerland via Japan.

p. 368